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Bitcoin => Mining => Topic started by: kokojie on June 10, 2011, 02:32:19 PM



Title: ubuntu 32 bit or 64 bit?
Post by: kokojie on June 10, 2011, 02:32:19 PM
When I go to download ubuntu, the download says 32 bit (recommended), and then 64 bit. But I think I'll need to get the 64bit machine for a mining rig?


Title: Re: ubuntu 32 bit or 64 bit?
Post by: Bitonetta on June 10, 2011, 03:09:07 PM
When I go to download ubuntu, the download says 32 bit (recommended), and then 64 bit. But I think I'll need to get the 64bit machine for a mining rig?

I don't know if there's a difference in performance between the two.  Doesn't look to be.  But 64 bit is definitely *NOT* needed.  I'm running dedicated miners on both 32 and 64 bit versions.


Title: Re: ubuntu 32 bit or 64 bit?
Post by: kokojie on June 10, 2011, 04:52:19 PM
When I go to download ubuntu, the download says 32 bit (recommended), and then 64 bit. But I think I'll need to get the 64bit machine for a mining rig?

I don't know if there's a difference in performance between the two.  Doesn't look to be.  But 64 bit is definitely *NOT* needed.  I'm running dedicated miners on both 32 and 64 bit versions.

Isn't 32bit only see 4GB of ram? I have 4GB ram on the machine, plus 4 x 1GB GPU, that's total of 8GB of ram, wouldn't that cause a problem with 32bit?


Title: Re: ubuntu 32 bit or 64 bit?
Post by: AngelusWebDesign on June 10, 2011, 04:56:21 PM
No.  The 4-GB limit is only for main RAM, and you can install extensions to the main 32-bit kernel to support more RAM.

Sad to say, 64-bit STILL causes problems. It *still* after 5 years isn't ready for prime time. I can't run the Bitcoin client on my machine, for example.  32-bit is good.

Matthew


Title: Re: ubuntu 32 bit or 64 bit?
Post by: Chucksta on June 10, 2011, 05:02:13 PM
When I go to download ubuntu, the download says 32 bit (recommended), and then 64 bit. But I think I'll need to get the 64bit machine for a mining rig?

I don't know if there's a difference in performance between the two.  Doesn't look to be.  But 64 bit is definitely *NOT* needed.  I'm running dedicated miners on both 32 and 64 bit versions.

Isn't 32bit only see 4GB of ram? I have 4GB ram on the machine, plus 4 x 1GB GPU, that's total of 8GB of ram, wouldn't that cause a problem with 32bit?

Yes 32bit does only see up to 4gb of ram. The ram on the GPU and the system ram are separate entities, completely different. So no problem.


Title: Re: ubuntu 32 bit or 64 bit?
Post by: CubedRoot on June 10, 2011, 06:09:05 PM
I think Ubuntu 32bit is using the PAE kernel now.  If they are using a 32 bit PAE kernel, it will indeed see more than 4 gig ram, and also take advantage of 64 bit processors like they should.


Title: Re: ubuntu 32 bit or 64 bit?
Post by: AngelusWebDesign on June 10, 2011, 06:13:08 PM
As of 10.4 they weren't using the PAE (physical address extensions) kernel -- so my old 10.4 Ubuntu box can only see 4 GB of RAM.
However, that might be different with 11.04 or Linux Mint (almost like Ubuntu) 10 or 11.

PAE allows Linux 32-bit to address more than 4 GB of RAM.

It's something you can upgrade to (install) on your machine for free -- just use "APT-GET". Google to find out the details.